Joes out to continue winning form

Joes in the lead will have the real tester against Royal 

St. Joseph’s College under the leadership of Teran Karunanayake will be all out to continue their winning streak when they host Royal College at Havelock Park on 22 July. This is a must win game for Royal in order to move forward to round 2 as one of the top 2 teams in the league. Defeat here will put them out of the race as they were already defeated by Trinity College at Royal Sports Complex a couple of weeks back.

Joes got an outstanding outfit coached by one of the best in the trade, Nilfer Ibrahim who is also the Men’s National Head Coach for the Commonwealth Games 2022. Joes have some top-class players such as Naveen Marasinghe, Dilhara Subash, Skipper Teran Karunanayake and Daham Dias in their outfit from Darley Road. Though they beat Trinity up in the hills their performance was not up to their usual high standard of rugby and top-class rugby will be required to keep their unbeaten tag intact.

Meanwhile Royalist are led by Harshith Peiris and their full back, Nabeel Yehya, being one of the best in the school’s league. His kick at goal and touch kicks gain much needed territory advantage for the Reid Avenue outfit. This will be their last game as they have beaten Antonians, Kingswood, St. Thomas and lost out to Trinity. On form Joes should edge their opponents out which will not only put them out of the title equation, but the Darley Road outfit will be continuing their winning streak, one step closer to the league.

Referee: Ishanka Abeykoon

Trinity out for a win

Trinity College will be all out to end their last round 1 game with a win over the Randles Hill School. Trinity after some cohesive rugby against Thomians, Antonians and Royalist lost their way against Joes at Pallekele last weekend. Though they dominated against Joes in the later half, converting territory into points was not done and, in the end, they had to pay the price.

Their Skipper, Lithmal Moragoda is a doubtful starter due to his injury. They have some class acts under their team such as Jayageeth Basnayake, Aattab Manzil, Kovida Wickremasinghe, Zeshan Zakir and Sheveen Premaratne.Much will be expected from the nippy scrum half, Premaratne to coordinate with the speedy three-quarter line and take maximum usage. Loshika Wijekoon is expected to lead the outfit.

Meanwhile the Randles Hill lads are going through a lean patch this season. They are led by Randila Runaweera with Buddhika Thalagampola as their Head Coach with Roshan Weeraratne supporting the outfit. Majority of their players are in their initial year of Under 20 rugby. After COVID hit for 2 years, they have lost the majority of their good players during that time. They also have one of the star players and seniors in the outfit, Imanka Ishara. Trinity should be home without much trouble here.

Referee: Kelum Sandaruwan

Vidyartha to continue winning ways

Vidyartha College after their giant killing performance against the Peterites look a totally different side. After their win against the lads from Bambalapitiya which came after a decade they beat Rajans outfit in their next home game. They have always played good rugby especially under wet conditions with their heavy set of forwards, but they will be tested fully at the steamy Mount Lavinia when they lock horns with Science College.

Meanwhile Science College is no push over. Though they are yet to register a win they performed well against Rajans up in Kandy which ended on equal terms. They lost out to Isipathana and Wesley so far in the season. Meanwhile Vidyartha went down to Wesley but was able to beat Peterites and Dharmaraja.

Kandy lads look a strong outfit led by Arosha Rathnayake and coached by one of their Old Boys, Nalin Wijesinghe. A win here could give them a very good chance for round 2 as their last game against Isipathana will be a home game in Kandy. Meanwhile Science College is led by Hansaka Lakshan and has some fast runners. The forward will need to support with the good ball.

Referee: Aaqil Jamaldeen

Isipathana to continue their unbeaten run

Isipathana College, one of the two unbeaten sides in the league will not have much difficulty when they host the Rajans at Havelock Park.

Isipathana having displayed a high standard of running rugby will be all out to end on a winning note plus earn a bonus point out of this encounter.

Meanwhile Rajans rugby has been inconsistent this season. They lost out to St. Peter’s and Vidyartha while the Science game played in Kandy could not be turned in their favour. Dahan Nithina will lead the Havelock Town lads with technically correct, Saliya Kumara who is also the Women’s Head Coach for the Commonwealth Games 2022 will look after the lads as the Head Coach. Rajans will be led by their Co-Captains, Saumya Wijewiri and Thenuka Wickremasinghe.

Referee: Raveen Alexander

Wesley hold the edge

Wesley will hold a slight edge when they play St. Peter’s College who are smarting with two back-to-back defeats in their league encounters. They lost to Vidyartha in Kandy after a decade while the Isipathana game too was a tough ask for them as they ended on the wrong side. A defeat at the hands of Wesley will put them out of the race for the League this year.

Meanwhile Wesley already scored wins over Vidyartha and Science convincingly and lost out to Isipathana. They will have one more game against Dharmaraja in their last group encounter.

Referee: Hasantha Weranga

Thomians will face tough task

Thomians who are yet to register a win this season will be coming out for this game hoping to register their first win in the group stages. Thomians lost out to Trinity, Royal and Joes while they had a Kingswood encounter which was postponed to be played in the Central Hills.

Meanwhile Antonians who possess a very good all-round outfit went down fighting to Royal and Trinity while they outclassed Kingswood with a season’s highest score of 57/7. They have a Joes game to be played in their last group outing.

Thomians are led by burly number 8, Chariya Kurukulasuriya who is an outstanding leader with the game changer being their fly half, Bulathsinhalage. He is an outstanding youngster. Meanwhile Antonians are led by Jeyan Amarasinghe along with Keerthisiri and Tirone

Referee: Gihan Yatawara

(SJ)